I frequently describe worship time on Sunday as a celebration, and I believe with all my heart that as the church gathers together, one of our chief goals is to exult and enjoy the glory of God.  I do want to address an assumption, though, that many of us slip into as we approach worship.  I often have a kind of intuitive idea that in order to celebrate God at worship, I must pretend my problems don’t exist.  In laying aside these problems, I can then truly worship.

There are very few ideas that are futher from the truth of worship.  I don’t know where we came up with the idea that we have to somehow perfect  ourselves in order to worship, as if it were possible to purge ourselves of our problems and guilt.  Overwhelmingly, as I read the Scripture, I discover the message that God wants us to “come as we are” into His presence.  Don’t spend time cleaning up for worship; come to God in a humble, broken state, and He will fix you.

I am not suggesting that we can truly worship God while harboring willful sin in our hearts.  Scripture, and indeed, nature, makes it clear that it is impossible to celebrate God in worship when we have parts of our lives that we are unwilling to submit to Him.  What I am suggesting, however, is that you and I should have to pretend that our problems don’t exist in order to worship.  We often feel obligated to smile and raise our hands on the outside, while weeping with discouragement on the inside.

Christ said that He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  In other words, Jesus wasn’t made a man for those who have perfect, bubble-gum, American-dream style lives, because those people have their problems handled.  Rather, He came to people whose lives are broken, battered, and ultimately marred by sin and trouble.  One of the most powerful ways that we can celebrate Christ in worship time is by laying our burdens, troubles, and pain at the feet of the One who we worship.

Subscribe to Milestoneworship

Recently

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.